This interactive map shows you how much of Seattle would be under water by 2020 if sea levels rise by 1 foot.

One particularly influential contributor to sea level rise is the ice melt in Greenland. BURN an energy journalsent Neal Conan, former NPR host and correspondent, and Gretel Ehrlich, acclaimed science and nature writer, to Greenland for a closer look at the island’s melting ice.

Just two percent of Greenland is bare land, the rest is covered in ice — two miles thick in some places.

One scientist believes the ice sheet is melting much faster than what is generally accepted. Jason Box lives in Copenhagen where he is a professor of glaciology. He says abrupt climate change is underway; and the last two decades had a much sharper rise in temperature compared to the past century. “To be called an alarmist is true — this is a serious problem. The political system seems incapable of responding at the speed we need. That keeps me up at night."

Conrad Stephan, director of the Federal Institute for Forestry, Snow and Landscape in Switzerland, measures Greenland’s wind, snow and melt. “Last year was the maximum melt year since we started measuring in 1979. We lost 450 gigatons of ice,” said Stephan. Stephan compared that to taking all the ice in the Alps and multiplying that by five: That’s how much ice is lost on an annual basis in Greenland.

“Global sea levels rise, on average, close to one millimeter per year due to Greenland’s glacier melt,” said Stephan. “It does not sound like a lot, but we have to be aware that you are talking about global sea level. What's important is the local sea level rise. Locally that can vary by a factor of two, or sometimes three. Half a meter sea level rise in 50 years has a major impact on the coastal regions of the world.”

Ehrlich: "It looked as if a hammer had been smashed down on the ice."

Ehrlich: "Here we are at the end of time."http://kuow.org/node/22426/edit